Mavericks to land No. 1 ABA ranking

The Shreveport-Bossier Mavericks are expected to be ranked No. 1 in the American Basketball Association Power Ratings on Monday following their win over the Mobile Bay Tornadoes on Saturday night, combined with the Tuesday loss of the top-ranked Jacksonville Giants.

The 32-team ratings debuted in December at www.abalive.com with the local franchise rated No. 3. But after defeating then-No. 2 North Texas the following week, the Mavs jumped to second where they have remained for more than a month.

“It’s amazing we’ve been able to hang in there with the number of challenges we’ve faced,” Mavs coach Steve Tucker said. “Our center (Brandon Davis) has only played four games this season.”

The Mavs (16-0) defeated Mobile Bay 113-95 on Saturday in a neutral-site contest at the Bossier Parish Community College gym. The team’s win streak now reaches 42 games, if you include previous league contests when the team operated out of Beaumont.

“People will be playing their best game every time out against us now,” Tucker said. “We will definitely have to step up our game now.”

Current Mavericks Mike Crain and Alex Sanders were on previous Mavericks teams in south Texas that were also No. 1. The 2010-11 team set an ABA record with 33 consecutive weeks in the top spot.

“That put a lot of pressure on us at the time, because the other teams had pride too,” Crain said.

“We knew we could lose the No. 1 spot at any time but we never got distracted.”

Sanders said the current Mavericks are embracing the top spot because of the hard work they’ve put in.

“We welcome it and we look forward to defending it,” Sanders said. “We’re definitely ready. We’re on pace to have and awesome season.”

Jacksonville (17-1) lost 120-117 in overtime to the South Florida Gold on Tuesday before rebounding to defeat the same team 128-103 on Wednesday. The Mavs and the Giants will not meet during the regular season.

The Mavs played Saturday’s game at BPCC due to the State Fair of Louisiana Boat, Sport & RV Show using Hirsch Coliseum Friday through Sunday. All proceeds from the game benefitted BPCC.

“Mobile hadn’t lost since the last time we played them, so this was a good test for us,” Tucker said. “They battled us pretty good on a neutral floor. They had a couple of big players inside and we lost PJ Cousinard to a knee injury, which forced us to put an unusual lineup on the floor.

Ed Horton led the way for the Mavs with 32 points and nine rebounds, while Trey Moore added 20, Currye Todd 16 and Alex Sanders 10.

The Mavs host the DFW Stars at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at Hirsch Coliseum.